Rene Marie was introduced to sing the national anthem. But that's not what she sang.

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

One of the most notable incidents from Tuesday's State of the City address occurred even before the mayor's speech began. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Rene Marie was introduced to sing the national anthem. But that's not what she sang.

Martin actually sang the tune of the traditional national anthem with the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It's a song some have called the National Black Anthem, the Negro National Anthem or the Black National Anthem. Once she finished performing, there was a moment of awkward silence and then the crowd gave her mild applause. Marie said she understood why the audience was confused, since the song sounded familiar but the lyrics were different.

"Art is supposed to make you think. I wanted to express how I felt, being a black woman living in this country," Marie told 7NEWS.

The Denver Mayor's Office said it wasn't aware that Marie was planning to sing that version of the song.

"We were as surprised as anyone that jazz singer René Marie did not sing our national anthem at today's State of the City ceremony, as our staff had requested," Mayor John Hickenlooper said in prepared statement.

"As I listened to her sing, I assumed she would eventually move into the traditional Star Spangled Banner. I called her personally this afternoon to understand what happened. She explained her song was an artistic expression of her love for her country. She said she meant no disrespect of any kind and that her song was in no way intended to be a political statement. She apologized for any problems she may have created," Hickenlooper said. "I'm disappointed that this matter has been a distraction from the great work and significant accomplishments of our city employees over the past year and the many important initiatives on tap for the coming year.

Contrary to popular belief, slavery didn’t end with Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Experts estimate that today there are 27 million people enslaved around the world.

Contemporary Child Slavery in Mauritania
By Libbie Snyder
For the past 800 years, child slaves in Mauritania have been as invisible in their own community as the country’s institution of slavery has been to international eyes. In Mauritania today, an estimated one million of the population live as slaves and approximately half of slaves are children.

There are many people far worse off than the decendents of slaves. Not to mention the fact that worldwide, slavery has been so prevalent, we are all probably decendent of slaves.

-
-
-
In actual dollars, President Obama’s $4.4 trillion in deficit spending in just three years is 37 percent higher than the previous record of $3.2 trillion (held by President George W. Bush) in deficit spending for an entire presidency. It’s no small feat to demolish an 8-year record in just 3 years.

Under Obama’s own projections, interest payments on the debt are on course to triple from 2010 (his first budgetary year) to 2018, climbing from $196 billion to $685 billion annually.

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

My family has done plenty of stony trodding and silent weeping but I have no desire to hear that expressed in a community song of any kind. :mad:

What's ironic here is that blacks are way overrepresented in Denver city employee demographics. Denver is really a white/Hispanic town.

Ooo! Ooo! I do! I do! It means "forcing white crackers to bend over and be f'ed over by black people who are brainwashed into thinking they have some sort of entitlement due to something that happened decades ago to now long-dead black people who may or may not be related to people today." Something like that. It's late.

"Art is supposed to make you think. I wanted to express how I felt, being a black woman living in this country," Marie told 7NEWS.

But that wasn't what she was hired to do. She was hired to sing the National Anthem. If she felt ill equipped to do it, there are many other professional singers (including a friend of mine who does USO shows) who would have been very happy to have sung the National Anthem.

We sing the first verse only during Black History month in my church, just like we sing the Battle Hymn of The Republic on Memorial Day weekend, and probably this Sunday, we will sing God Bless America. I like the words to the first verse, it's a good song if you just stick that. I will note that "Lift Every Voice And Sing" is sung at pretty much every formal city government function in Detroit.